I. Field
The disclosed embodiments relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to downloading software to wireless communication devices.
II. Background
Wireless communication devices have become ubiquitous. Devices such as wireless telephones include so-called mobile station modems (MSM) that essentially are wireless communication computers which, like all digital computers, execute software to undertake the functions desired by the user.
Improvements in a wireless communication system sometimes entail changes to the software that is executed by the mobile devices in the system. For instance, changes to or additions to a system's base stations might require updated software be provided to wireless devices in the system.
Updated software can be provided to a wireless device from a computer such as a system computer operated by technical personnel by downloading the necessary software into the device through a wired or wireless path. In many devices, the incoming software is received through a wire that is connected to a personal computer (PC) having the new software. The wire terminates in a connector that mates with a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port on the wireless device.
At or near the end of a software download, many if not most MSMs execute a restart to use the new software. Among other things, a restart involves resetting processor registers and memory to default values. When a restart occurs, it appears to the downloading PC that the wireless device has been abruptly removed from the USB connection, despite the fact that the physical connection remains. While this may not be a problem from the wireless device side, it can cause problems for certain applications hosted by the PC, particularly the application attempting to complete the download process.